Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag

[luckton]

Game franchises: You either die a cult classic, or you live long enough to become a yearly release.

[Sir T]

Because you have to have the protagonist wearing hoods because it was the coolest thing about the first game.

Of course the point of THAT was so that Altiar could blend in with a bunch of monks to get places.

The nice thing about the first game was the level of historical research that went into it.

Seriously at this point they should have just gone with cool and had AC IV, Pirates delivering pizza V Ninjas delivering hamburgers.

[K9]

I still think they umped through history too fast. They missed out potential Assasins Creed 3: Musketeers and something from feudal Japan. I guess they could jump forward to prohibition era America, when the first true cities were being established, and you could start having some of that environmental fun again.

[Maledict]

Well given that AC4 is going back in time seems like they aren't going to restrict themselves to going ever forward now.

[goishen]

I got AC I, II, & III for Christmas this year.  Didn't like III, went back to II.   Race up a building?  Alt-F4.

The mechanics are just not my cup of tea.    I know what UbiSoft is going for, they're going for the realism of it.   The hard work it takes to put yourself on a roof.   Ummm, no.   Unless you've been on a roof sweating your nuts off and wanting to be ANYPLACE else, even the gates of hell are looking good to you at this point, then no.   Come home everyday smelling like shit and falling asleep in the middle of your dinner plate?   Score!  Sleeping for 10 hours and still waking up tired?  Score! 

Add to this the Alex Jones level of crazy that I believe that you must have to believe that these two groups exist and just...  No.   Not just no, but fuck no.   God, don't even get me started about the dashes in the game code.

[HaemishM]

I don't know what the fuck you just said, little man... but you touched a brother's heart!

[rk47]

reads like one of my scottish CK2 AAR TBH. Wrong thread, but here it is. 

[Goreschach]

I still think they umped through history too fast. They missed out potential Assasins Creed 3: Musketeers and something from feudal Japan. I guess they could jump forward to prohibition era America, when the first true cities were being established, and you could start having some of that environmental fun again.

I think they're just trying to rush their way to Assassin's Creed: Shoot the Brown People.

[rk47]

Golden Brown Edition available?

[K9]

I still think they umped through history too fast. They missed out potential Assasins Creed 3: Musketeers and something from feudal Japan. I guess they could jump forward to prohibition era America, when the first true cities were being established, and you could start having some of that environmental fun again.

I think they're just trying to rush their way to Assassin's Creed: Shoot the Brown People.

I've been waiting for a good Rourke's Drift simulator

[Merusk]

I still think they umped through history too fast. They missed out potential Assasins Creed 3: Musketeers and something from feudal Japan. I guess they could jump forward to prohibition era America, when the first true cities were being established, and you could start having some of that environmental fun again.

I think they're just trying to rush their way to Assassin's Creed: Shoot the Brown People.

All games must be CoD:MW!

[Venkman]

Anyone else pick this up? I already like it more than 3, though I'm only two or so hours in.

[Hawkbit]

It's miles better than 3, though I think 2 will be the high water mark for this IP. 

As I said in another thread, it would be a perfect game if not for the Assassin's Creed parts of the game.  Interestingly, Ubi sent around a survey that seems to be gauging interest in an 'all pirates' IP.  Fighting with and/or against friends.  Maybe they're looking to expand the Caribbean out. 

[Venkman]

Yea.

I will say the AC parts of the game feel like the promise they made when they rebuilt the engine for 3. It's much more fluid than 2, there are more options, not as herky/jerky when it comes to combat. But it's also more polished/less buggy than 3.

Not sure about the story. 2 had a really compelling character journey. Connor never interested me that much. Jury's still out for me on Kenway. But so far he's no Ezio, and there hasn't been a compelling supporting recurring cast I've seen yet.

It is odd to be running into AC parts even before the main story arc introduces you to them. But that's built into all of these versions

[Khaldun]

Honestly, a game where the latest AC protagonist is a Zulu at Isandalwana?

I would fucking buy that in a minute even if the mechanics were shitty.

[Venkman]

Still loving it. I think it's the variety. They really got the ship combat refined, and the ground stuff I still like once a year. But also, to be honest, this reminds me of what I was hoping PotBS would turn out to be.

[jakonovski]

Caved in and bought this even though the sale percentage was paltry. It's pretty great, especially after AC3. One thing is driving me crazy however. Is it possible to dock your ship when roaming the world? You get a dock button when you're on a mission, but not otherwise. I always have to swim ashore and it makes absolutely no sense.

[CmdrSlack]

You can only dock at certain locations. Most major cities require you to dock or sail towards the harbor to enter them anyway. Some other islands allow you to dock, but not all. For any tiny island with a chest and an animus fragment, you'll be swimming.

There's usually a highlighted circle on the water if you can dock somewhere. When you get far enough into the main story, you'll be able to dock at sunken wrecks and forts that you've taken over.

[Miasma]

You can only dock at places that have actual docks, which is a minority of the islands.  Anywhere that does have a dock is probably a place where you will just wind up using fast travel to get to anyways, and then you're auto-docked.  If you get really close to the small islands you can sometimes use the rope swing beside the helm's swivel cannon to land on your feet (you will take damage).

I liked most of the game but got pretty pissed off by the end and was just happy to get it over with.  I liked the sandbox collections, ship fighting and optional missions but by the halfway point I started hating the main plot missions.  I found it especially jarring going from a fairly well done sandbox into those hyper rigid follow/eavesdrop missions where you just have to guess exactly what and where the developers wanted you to go.

Also, since it's so poorly explained, you use heavy shot by pulling the right trigger without aiming.  I can't count the number of times I accidently launched a volley of heavy shot into wherever I was docked since I was so used to holding it down while moving on land...  Nobody seemed to mind or get wounded by it though!

Edit: Somthing else I didn't pick up on because either I'm stupid or hadn't played any of the previous games is that you don't have to wait for the "break defense" icon to pop up over an enemy's head to do it, if you are fighting an agile or heavy you can do it right away and then just kill them.  Captains you do have to wait for the counter icon.

[jakonovski]

Thanks for the docking tips ( ), turns out it was just a bug, probably the spirit of AC3 wafting from my old HD.

Anyway, I'm pleasantly surprised that you actually have to do open world stuff to level up against harder enemy ships. AC games are usually such trivial pushovers that even this little bit is refershing.
 

[Miasma]

After taking over the forts that control the four corners of the map legendary enemy ships will be revealed.  Holy hell are those hard.  I managed to kill one and afterwards I decided not to seriously try the other ones because it caused me so much frustration.

[jakonovski]

23 hours in and the open world just keeps delivering! The plot missions pretty much suck, but at least it's not buggy this time.

Oh, and fuck moray eels. Seriously.

[Venkman]

35 hours in and I haven't even seen a moray eel :) I just finished Sequenc 4. Keep getting sidetracked, particularly on the sea. Just got enough ooomf to clear my way to Portugal. Took me a bit, and a few hundred gems, before I realized I could scuttle the smaller ships to make way for the bigger ones instead of constantly always adding new docks.

My one beef is that I can't send more than one ship on a mission (yet?). Seems an odd ommision when the make-a-route-safe minigame allows you to mix and match ala AC2 (and maybe AC3 though I never got that far into it to see).

Also a fun game to be playing when watching Pirates of the Carribean in the new home theater area I'm slowly cobbling together. Lots of attitude crossover.

[jakonovski]

I recommend Master and Commander. It's what propelled me to buy this in the first place.

[Venkman]

Oh that'd be a good one too, though I thought it kinda slow in the middle-ish iirc.

Also would look good on the projector

[Quinton]

I strongly advise reading Master and Commander (and if you like it, the rest of the Aubrey-Maturin novels). 

[Miasma]

My one beef is that I can't send more than one ship on a mission (yet?). Seems an odd ommision when the make-a-route-safe minigame allows you to mix and match ala AC2 (and maybe AC3 though I never got that far into it to see).

Only one ship, you will need Man O' Wars to carry the cargo.  They are super slow.  I wonder if the plural for Man O' War is Men O' War, like that annoying courts martial.  Doesn't seem to be much point in the fleet mini game once you get the treasure map reward.

Fake edit: Hah I looked it up and it is Men O' War.

[Venkman]

Reminded me I need to do more treasure maps. I kinda like those. I assume the treasure map rewards makes those easier or irrelevant or something, but don't want to know I don't mind the extra bit of cash and occasional reward the minigames give, so I generally keep up with the timers to keep them going.

Was the fleet minigames something they built into an AC IV app or was that something I dreamed up?

[Miasma]

I haven't done it but yeah you're supposed to be able to do the fleet stuff from tablets and phones.

[jakonovski]

My fleet mission list is full of stuff that needs all sorts of cargo, but I can't see any way to procure said cargo. Is this some stupid social thing?

[Miasma]

You get cargo by winning fleet battles in the mini game to make the routes safe, you can keep fighting until the route is green.  I don't know if it's random but I was always short on wine.

[jakonovski]

Ok, 32 hours in and the game is finally starting to get a bit stale. There's no point to finishing any of the side stuff (Ubi has always had a complete inability to make an interesting loot or reward system), and the main missions are utter dogshit. I mean seriously, where do they get this need to micromanage the player's exact position? Why is it so important that I only walk on the left side of the barn while eavesdropping on some assholes? Also, you have to sneakily tail a ship by remaining within 100m of it? That just looks retarded. Again, what is the goddamn point?

edit: oh god, the story missions just became worse than AC3. The plot lost coherence (major characters basically transforming from cutscene to another, for no reason) and the missions are contradicting themselves, putting an emphasis on stealth but level design making it impossible. I guess it was fun while it lasted.

[Miasma]

Ahahaha I know exactly which fucking barn you're talking about because I rage quit at that point before coming back the next damn morning and just going left.

The "sneaky ship tailing" missions are even more laughable but way easier than eavesdrop.  I really like how they recorded Kenway whispering all of his sailing shouts instead of yelling!

The main mission completely falls apart in the last third of the game but you're too deep to quit now so just hold your nose and get through it man!

[jakonovski]

I'm too far to not finish the game, but no more side stuff. Funny how after clearing about a third of it, you realize it's all copy pasted and there's no point to any of it. Like you literally just grind stuff for the joy of grinding.

Also,

[CaptainNapkin]

Yeah I got to that point yesterday and decided I needed to push through the main mission line or I'd never complete it. I have 50some hours played so even with the story I can't say that I didn't get my 30 bucks worth. Overall still found it to be a fantastic game, and the first AC that I thought was fun. But totally agree that it would have been just as fun if you removed the AC pieces.

I've yet to try sinking a legendary ship and haven't tried multiplayer. Will give the first a go before I shelve this one but not sure about the latter.